Activities
Fun Games that Teach Finances
For toddlers on up
By Melody Warnick and Carolyn Kylstra
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See Also
What you're telling your kids (maybe without even knowing it) and how to communicate the values that matter most - Parenting.com
The 5 things you need to know to protect your family's finances - Parenting.com
Weekend Fun - Parenting.com

Grade-schoolers

What's the difference?
Help your child compare the old $20 bill (the kind with a framed Andrew Jackson) with the frameless one that came out in 2003. See if she can figure out what changed and what didn't. Then talk about how the new version is harder to counterfeit because of its tough-to-copy green, peach, and blue background and watermark.

Make a meal
Let your kid go through the Sunday newspaper's grocery-store ads and cut out pictures of foods he loves, along with their prices. Challenge him to create a healthy dinner for $5.

Bottle full o' money
Fill an empty plastic bottle with coins, and have your child guess how much money's inside. Let her count it out to see if she's right.

Go the distance
Have your child lay pretend bills end to end to "measure" the distance from his bed to his door, or from the couch to the TV. Ask him to add up the bills' value to tell you the total "distance."

Shop it
Line up some treats (fruit, crackers, stickers, erasers...whatever) and price them with sticky notes. Give your child coins, tell her to pay for what she'd like to buy, and let her keep her purchases!


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